First day impressions

 It's my life  No Responses »
Jan 062009
 

Today was my first day back in class for the second term. Of the four classes I am taking this semester, I had 3 today:

  • Engineering and Social Responsibility: looks like this will be a lot of work, and specifically a lot of group work in what I deem to be too large of groups (six members).
  • Circuits and Systems: not much surprise here. They’ve changed the course a bit to make it flow better with its prerequisite so hopefully this will help me. I definitely need to review my Thevenin, Norton, node and mesh analysis though.
  • Statistical Analysis for Engineering: another programming class. We’re supposed to learn how to use a new language which the prof called R (or CRAN). It should be interesting since, again according to my prof, we will be marking our own tests and assignments.

The only class left to “sample” is Marketing and I don’t expect there will be any surprises there.

After my first two classes I tried my luck with the OSAP line, but no dice. The whole waiting three hours in line didn’t speak to me and as I was leaving I ran into a friend of mine who also is a pilot. We reminisced about some lessons and happenings in the air then headed our own ways.

All in all this semester is shaping up well and it looks like I won’t be spending much money on books (if any for that matter).

 Posted by at 6:00 pm  Tagged with: , , ,

Goals for the new year

 It's my life  No Responses »
Jan 032009
 

I have spent the past few days organizing my room for the new school term. As I was doing this I began thinking about what I want to accomplish in 2009 (in no particular order):

  • Lose weight and become more active – A little cliché but it has gotten to the point where it is needed. Six years ago (in June) when I graduated from high school I weighed 180 lbs (~82 kg). Now I am up to 280 lbs (~127 kg). I tried snowboarding this winter and had to give up after my first time down the bunny hill. Having to undo and do up the bindings after each run would have been too tiresome and moreover, I was not able to do it myself since my stomach got in the way. Long story short, it is time for me to increase my fitness level so watch this site for updates on my progress.
  • Raise my Cumulative Average to 6.5 or higher – My first year at Disaster University was great on the academic side. Since then however my grades have slipped and it is time to bring them back up, one course at a time. I have a good start this school year and I intend to keep the trend going. (In case you are not familiar with the grading system at McMaster, it is based on a 12 point scale reflecting the range from 50% to 100%. Check this page for a table converting from McMaster’s grading system to more widely used ones.)
  • Complete my private pilot license – My flight lessons came to an abrupt end in November 2008 when Peninsulair was locked out. Since then, the only flying I have done has been in Microsoft’s Flight Simulator. I want to finish at least the private pilot level in the next twelve months which means I will have to start reviewing ground school and the flight briefings I have already done. I plan on posting my reviews on this blog which also plays into my next goal.
  • Write more aviation and aviation training related posts – Not only will this help me review the material I have covered, I also hope it will start discussions and allow me to get light shed on topics which may be a bit fuzzy. (I am planning a follow up to my “Planes on Conveyors” post to further explain my reasoning and allow some of my pilot friends’ input to be heard.)
  • Live the life I want to have, not the one I have – You have probably heard of the phrase: “Dress for the job you want, not the job you have.” I plan to apply its spirit to my life and start living towards the life I want to have once out in the workforce (more or less).
  • Read more both in English and Romanian – The last book I finished was back in March 2008 and is The Amber Spyglass (Wiki), the third book in Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials (Wiki) series which includes The Golden Compass (Wiki). Since then I have started a few books but have not finished them. Alongside the books in English, I plan to read more in Romanian to improve my diminishing vocabulary.

It will be a great year!

 Posted by at 11:40 pm  Tagged with: , ,

The semester is dead, long live the semester

 It's my life  No Responses »
Jan 022009
 

I can finally close the book that was this past semester. All of my marks have been posted and I have no failures! For the past two (academic) years, I’ve been carrying over 2 failures per year but this has changed this year. Quite frankly, it’s nice to have no zeroes showing up on my transcript.

Now that it’s over, I’m looking forward to next term and the courses I will be taking:

  • Electrical Engineering 2CJ4 – Circuits and Systems: Advanced circuit analysis including dependent sources; Laplace transforms with applications; frequency response; 2-port networks; coupled circuits; power relationships; magnetic circuits.
  • Commerce 3MC3 – Applied Marketing Management: This course builds upon material in COMMERCE 2MA3 but is more applied in nature and covers the 4 P’s in greater depth. It also has a heavier industrial and service sector component, and relies more on practical, real world cases. A major field project (student teams working with companies) is a critical part of the course.
  • Engineering 4A03 – Engineering and Social Responsibility: The historical development of the engineering profession’s concern for social responsibility. Engineering as a cultural activity. The scope and limitations of engineering ethics. The role of the engineering profession in the social control of technological change.
  • Statistics 3Y03 – Statistical Analysis for Engineers: Introduction to probability, univariate and multivariate random variables and their distributions, statistical estimation and inference, regression and correlation, decision making, applications.

Of the four I’m mostly looking forward to Engineering 4A03, Engineering and Social Responsibility. I expect it to be quite a bit of work and maybe a bit more difficult than I’m used to since I will have to write (I’m not big on writing, by the way), however, from what I’ve heard, the topics covered are very interesting.

This coming semester will also be the one in which I will tame the monstrosity that is EE2CJ4, Circuits and Systems. It will be my second time through the course and I expect to do well. I will definitely work my hardest to get a mark well above just passing the course.

Here’s to a great new term!

 Posted by at 12:00 pm  Tagged with: , ,

Gifts for a budding pilot

 It's my life  No Responses »
Dec 272008
 

When it comes to receiving gifts, I have adopted a “can I buy it?” approach. Basically, rather than use Christmas (or birthday) gifts to get something I cannot afford (or would rather not spend the money on), I look for things that I could myself buy and then ask for those.

I have long since moved on to asking Santa for practical things. If I am not going to use it, I do not see a point in having it. This year, given my, somewhat, recent interest in aviation I asked for aviation related supplies and Santa (aka my family) did not disappoint.

First there was the ASA Rotating plotter

which will come in handy when ummm… plotting my tracks on the map. I currently have a Douglas protractor and a ruler, however these are a bit awkward to use. Don’t get me wrong, I won’t be throwing these out. I will however be putting the rotating plotter to good use when I return to “flight duty.”

Next up was an ASA Yoke Clip

which I will use to hold my charts and other papers in front of me as I am buzzing around up there.

Then came the ASA Double headset bag

The final aviation-related gift, and my reading material for the next while, was the book Buying and Owning Your Own Airplane by James E. Ellis

All in all, Santa was good to a budding pilot.

 Posted by at 12:00 pm  Tagged with: , , , , , , ,

Things I’ve learned during this semester

 It's my life  2 Responses »
Dec 122008
 
  • Hard work pays off, but only if you see it through to the end. To quote Will Smith, “It ain’t over till the fat lady sings.”
    This semester my marks have been quite high. This can be attributed to the fact that I only had four courses and thus I had enough time to spread between all of them. However, as the term neared its completion, the wear and tear was evident and rather than fighting through it all the way to the end of the exam period, I stopped to lick my wounds. This has resulted (at least in my mind, since I don’t have concrete marks yet) in a less than stellar performance on my exams.
  • Size (of group) does matter. If the guidelines to forming a group for a course mention five or less members, try to get five people. On the other hand, if the course is not organized, with clear goals and expectations and enough work to go around, limiting the number of members to three will minimize dissonance.
  • Fight for what you deserve. The worst that can happen is that that you don’t get it.
  • I am getting too old for all-nighters. I used to be able to stay up all night working, go to bed for 4 hours then be like brand new. Not any more.
 Posted by at 4:41 am
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